


Second Chances

by monsterkiss



Category: Persona 3, Persona Series
Genre: M/M, Spoilers, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-16
Updated: 2013-11-16
Packaged: 2018-01-01 18:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1047335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monsterkiss/pseuds/monsterkiss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Graduation Day the survivors are left to pick up the pieces, and Akihiko isn't sure where to start. Ten drabbles covering the end of Persona 3, through The Answer and up to the beginning of Arena.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Chances

He goes to the hospital almost every day, filling up the silence with chatter. Shinjiro sits, face blank and hair lank and tangled, but if he’s hoping that Akihiko will give in and let him mope in peace forever, he’s wrong. Akihiko points this out several times, but there are days when the silence frightens him.

One day he walks into the white room, rubbing his cheek, and jumps when Shinji whispers, “you actually let some punk in the boxing team get a hit in?”

“Yeah, I got distracted.”

Shinji sighs. “Idiot.”

It’s the best thing he’s heard in weeks.

 

***

 

It’s a nice day. Too nice, the sunlight presses onto his skin like a weight, and he wants to tear off the black clothes that choke him and scream.

Some of the faces he recognises from school, some from town. The huge monk and the woman clutching a worn notebook like a ward he doesn’t know at all.

Yukari and Mitsuru wear grief like an old friend. Fuuka and Ken huddle together with Koromaru. Junpei won’t stop crying. He can’t see Aigis.

It takes more strength than he has to lay a hand on Shinji’s shoulder. He can’t even speak.

 

***

 

“I’m not giving up on him. I never said that, Akihiko.”

He knows he’s crossed a line, but it still takes everything in him to pull back, to resist pushing harder. Mitsuru seems to understand, sighs and stands, dumps the two untouched coffees down the sink.

“I just,” he forces his fists to unclench, relaxes his jaw. She notices, of course, nods approval. “I feel like I’m fighting for the both of us -me _and_ him- and I can’t stand it.”

“It seems you can save a man’s life, but can’t force him to value it himself.”

“Yeah,” he says.

 

***

 

“A labyrinth of doors through time, huh.” Shinji kicks floor, slouching, face hidden, though Aki is sure he could guess his expression. “Wonder if we’ll ever stop attracting this weird shit.”

“It’s probably just like an earthquake. There’s a big disaster, then the aftershocks, and eventually it fades away.” And you rebuild and start again, he almost adds, but stops himself in time.

“Fading away… yeah, I guess that’s what we were aiming for, right? For things to go back to how they were?” There’s spite there, and it burns, but he knows his answer before the question even comes.

 

***

 

He looks into her eyes, blank and metal, tries to find something there. A prayer or a promise or forgiveness. But all he can see is _her_ body, as empty as the day Shinji clutched it on the school rooftop. A monument to his own weakness in the face of her endless strength.

And then it was over, finally. Shinji sitting on the steps of the dorm with Aigis next to him, a real drive in her eyes he wishes he shared.

He approaches, a thousand apologies on his tongue, but Shinji stops them all with a look, a smile.

 

***

 

At first it was almost imperceptible. Even though he’d lived in this town for years, known these people, seen the faint shadows of their problems, he’d never really got attached to anyone outside of Shinji and Mitsuru. But when she came it was different. Suddenly people had a glow to them, they walked as if some weight had been lifted, smiled more freely. She brought out the best in people, somehow.

But not him. He didn’t quite understand until he saw her talking with Shinji that night, softly, the smile on his face hurt something in Akihiko, and he knew.

 

***

 

On the day after they move their stuff into the new house, he tells him. Shinji’s pulling his binder on with his usual stream of muttered curses while Aki sorts through college paperwork, and when he reaches over to tug it down his back the words start spilling out.

He’d talked it over with Mitsuru a thousand times. He had a Plan, a script, one that didn’t involve him wearing yesterday’s shirt with breadcrumbs down the front from breakfast.

Quiet. And then Shinji sighs, “you’re my best friend, Aki,” and he’s already apologising, but, “why not give it a shot?”

 

***

 

They live in the same room, and they know the same people and keep similar schedules. He wasn’t expecting much but it still astounds him how little everything changes.

It’s almost disappointing. He nearly says as much on the way home from the beef bowl place, before Shinji suddenly takes his hand and he realises all at once that this sort of thing is a Date now, not just two people who know each other getting food together. He only just remembers to squeeze back.

“It’s _weird,_ ” he tells Mitsuru the next day.

She shrugs, smiles, “but are you happy?”

 

***

 

“Do you… still think about her?”

“Yeah.”

“Even when we’re together?”

“Sometimes. That bother you?”

“I don’t- I mean, kind of, but not… I get it, I get that she’s still really important to you and that’s, she was my friend too, you know? And I miss her, I don’t want any of us to forget about her ever again.”

“Hmm.”

“I just… I want you to be happy. And I know I’m not good enough.”

“Cut the crap. You’re plenty good enough.”

“I know I can’t replace her-”

“Replace her? You were here first, you dumbass. Just… c’mere, okay?”

 

***

 

Shinji picks up after just three rings. “Mitsuru already called you, huh?”

“Yeah,” Akihiko laughs, leaning against a wall. “Sounds like another adventure.”

“Sounds like a pain in the ass.”

“You’re not coming, then?”

“Remember when you and her pushed me into this college thing in the first place? Now you’re dragging me back into monster hunting in some backwater town.”

“Don’t you miss me? We could hang out in the hot springs. I got some new scars to show you.”

“That’s not something to be proud of. Maybe I miss your scruffy face though.”

“I’ll see you there?”

“Sure.”


End file.
